Thread: Western Alliance To Putin: We Know It Was You

Western Alliance To Putin: We Know It Was You

ED MORRISSEYPosted at 10:01 am on March 15, 2018




It’s not an Article V declaration, but it’s not far off from it either. This morning, the US, Germany, and France issued a joint statement with the UK firmly placing the blame for a nerve agent assassination attempt on Russia, calling it “a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law.” The four nations demand that Russia start providing better answers — and fully disclose its chemical weapons program, including its work on Novichok, the weapon used in Salisbury:

SEE ALSO: Trump: “It certainly looks like” the Russians were behind Skripal assassination attempt
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JUST IN: US, UK, French and German leaders in a joint statement agree Russia was likely behind the nerve agent attack: “This use of a military-grade nerve agent... constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War” http://abcn.ws/2DuOEM6
9:31 AM - Mar 15, 2018

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The U.S., U.K., Germany and France on Thursday issued a joint statement on blaming Russia for the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury, England last week.

“We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, UK, on 4 March 2018,” the governments said.
“This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War,” they added.

It certainly doesn’t sound as though Donald Trump wants to take it easy on Vladimir Putin in this instance. Be sure to read Allahpundit’s post last night on Nikki Haley’s statement at the United Nations for background on this as well. Not only is the White House not hesitating, they seem to be getting more assertive as this rolls forward. This latest statement doesn’t involve NATO or its core common-defense clause in Article V, but the allegation itself of an “offensive use” of a weapon of war within the NATO alliance may well bring this up if Russia doesn’t respond with some explanations of its Novichok program.

For now, the Russians are still playing offense … and offended. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed Brexit for creating a political witch hunt against Moscow:

Russia warned on Thursday that it would retaliate very soon for Britain’s expulsion of 23 diplomats over a nerve toxin attack on a Russian former double agent. …

Russia denies any involvement and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused London of behaving in a “boorish” way, adding that this was partly due to the problems Britain faces over its planned exit from the European Union next year.

Lavrov said Russia’s response would come “very soon” but be conveyed to British officials first, an apparent contradiction of an earlier report by state news agency RIA that said Lavrov had promised to expel British diplomats.

His British counterpart Boris Johnson lays out the case against Russia — and for Western unity — in today’s Washington Post:

Our experts have identified the weapon used in Salisbury on March 4 as a fourth-generation nerve agent known as Novichok, designed to play havoc with the central nervous system and inflict a lingering death.

Russian scientists developed Novichok starting in the 1970s. Today, only Russia combines a record of state-sponsored assassinations with a publicly avowed motive for trying to kill Sergei Skripal and stockpiles of Novichok agents. …

There is a reason for choosing Novichok. In its blatant Russian-ness, the nerve agent sends a signal to all who may be thinking of dissent in the intensifying repression of Putin’s Russia. The message is clear: We will find you, we will catch you, we will kill you — and though we will deny it with lip-curling scorn, the world will know beyond doubt that Russia did it.

Johnson gave the Russian ambassador 36 hours to explain themselves, which passed without any satisfactory response. Now, Johnson argues, this goes beyond a “bilateral dispute”:

If the Russian state is prepared to deploy a banned weapon in a British city — amounting to the unlawful use of force against the United Kingdom — then the Kremlin is clearly willing to act without restraint. The bleak truth is that what happened in Salisbury could have happened anywhere. …
All responsible nations share an obligation to take a principled stance against this behavior. The countermeasures announced by the prime minister are not solely about the attack in Salisbury. Britain is striving to uphold the rules on which the safety of every country depends. I hope and believe that our friends will stand alongside us.

Johnson is absolutely correct in this position. The Putin regime has become a gangster government, ordering hits around the world with no regard to sovereignty or public safety. By using an agent like Novichok, they want to rub everyone’s noses in it while hiding behind diplomatic niceties and demanding the benefit of the doubt. At least so far, it appears that the Western alliance has had enough of that game — and thankfully that includes the Trump administration. Perhaps if the past two administrations had been more clear-eyed about the threat that Putin represented, we might not find ourselves in the position we occupy today, but at this point there is no excuse for blindness when it comes to Russia.

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Nikki Haley Unloads At The UN: Russia Is Responsible For The Skripal Poisoning, And Much, Much More

ALLAHPUNDITPosted at 10:01 pm on March 14, 2018




I don’t know what else hardcore Trump critics could want rhetorically than what Haley serves up here. She blames Moscow squarely for the nerve-agent attack in Britain, reaffirms the “special relationship” and America’s “absolute solidarity” with the UK, then runs through a few other humanitarian nightmares on Russia’s resume for good measure. NATO isn’t mentioned but this isn’t the forum for that. It’s the UN Security Council, whose credibility she calls into question explicitly if it fails to punish Russia for the Skripal poisoning. Which it will, of course, since Russia, as a permanent member, has a veto over any action.

SEE ALSO: One lesson of the PA-18 race: Throwing Nancy Pelosi under the bus helps

And yet hardcore anti-Trumpers like David Frum were killing POTUS earlier today for his supposedly weak response to the poisoning.

David Frum
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Trump has not tweeted about Salisbury nerve agent attack. No statement of support for UK on his most personal medium of communication. No endorsement of May's two speeches in House of Commons. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/973907142649397251 …
9:10 AM - Mar 14, 2018

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I assume Haley’s strong statement will be spun away as evidence of disjunction on Russia within the administration, with the president going one way while his intel chiefs and top diplomats go another. It’s impossible to believe, though, that her remarks weren’t vetted at the White House beforehand given how firmly she commits the U.S. to Great Britain’s side of the dispute. She’s all-in here. Surely she wouldn’t do that without official approval in Washington, lest it put her on the wrong side of the boss — who’s in a firing mood of late, let’s remember.

Her statement is more forceful than the White House readout of Trump’s phone call yesterday with Theresa May, but that was reasonably strong too:

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Trey Yingst
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White House readout of President Trump's call with British PM Theresa May:
2:06 PM - Mar 13, 2018

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The U.S. stands in solidarity with the UK and Russia must answer for the Skripal attack. If you want to parse the readout closely, you might note that it leaves some wiggle room to argue that while the Russian government may have developed the nerve agent that was used, it wasn’t necessarily the Russian government that ordered the attack. But Haley’s remarks today eliminated that possibility. The U.S. is blaming Russia, period.

In fact, per the Times, the White House is sensitive to perceptions that it’s going soft on Russia over this episode in light of the Russiagate probe and Trump’s weird kid-gloves treatment of Putin in the past:

At times, White House officials said, Mr. Tillerson’s behavior verged on insubordination. The administration, for example, was extremely cautious in responding to reports that Russia was behind the deadly nerve-gas attack in Britain. But when Mr. Tillerson was asked about it in Africa, he said, “It appears that it clearly came from Russia.”

His statement infuriated the White House, which had crafted its talking points with lawyers at the State Department to keep the United States in lock step with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain. Instead, an official said, Mr. Tillerson made the White House look like it was soft on Mr. Putin, which he insisted was not the intention.

That might explain the tenor of Haley’s remarks today. The White House, irritated that Tillerson had gotten ahead of the UK in pummeling Russia, now wanted to play catch-up after May formally accused Moscow of the Skripal attack. So they told Haley not to hold back in her UNSC statement. Just a theory, but worth considering.

I assume the new spin from devout “collusion” true believers will be either (a) it doesn’t matter what Haley says since only Trump truly speaks for the administration or (b) it doesn’t matter what anyone says since actions speak louder than words. Punish Russia in a meaningful way. Everything else is farts in the wind. There’s some truth to both points but they also amount to goalpost-shifting: The accusation as of this morning was that the White House hadn’t been nearly as vocal as it should be in siding with the Brits and directly blaming Russia for the nerve-agent operation. Well, here you go.

Exit question via Omri Ceren, noting the hand-wringing yesterday among some Trump critics over Tillerson’s firing: How can Trump be a Russian stooge for firing T-Rex when he was supposedly a Russian stooge for hiring him in the first place?

Update: The White House put this statement out after Haley’s speech today (and after I finished the post above). Again, what more could you want?

21h
ABC News Politics
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NEW: UN Amb. Nikki Haley: "The United States believes that Russia is responsible" for UK nerve-agent attack on ex-Russian spy. http://abcn.ws/2IrtUc6 pic.twitter.com/bGcQN5hG1H

ABC News Politics
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NEW: White House issues statement in support of the UK: "The US shares the UK's assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support the UK's decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response.” pic.twitter.com/H29owJQJZl
6:43 PM - Mar 14, 2018





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